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mburnamfink 's review for:
Hell Divers
by Nicholas Sansbury Smith
Hell Divers is gleeful post-apocalyptic scifi that is a solid beach read, dragged down from a higher rating by cliches, some sloppy world-building, and a fuzziness about the point of the story.
The high-concept bit is cool enough. 250 years ago, civilization was destroyed in a nuclear war. The 1000 odd survivors of humanity live on two airships, creaking beasts which were once bombers and are now lifeboats. Vital parts and fuel are only available on the surface. To retrieve them, the airships dispatch Hell Divers, parachutists who dive through deadly electrical storms to brave the frozen radioactive wastes below, where they hunt for supplies and are hunted by horrific monsters. The life expectancy of a hell diver is 16 jumps. Our hero, X (short for Xavier) has over 90 jumps. When one of the two ships goes down in a place named Hades, only X can save humanity from extinction.
There are some real cool pieces to this novel. Smith occasionally turns a fantastic bit of phrase to describe the grandeur of a parachute dive, or the haggard condition of the airship and her crew. But the pacing in this novel is workmanlike, a sense of obligatory 'action scene', 'character scene', rather than the true unity that makes for a great pulp novel. The setting is high concept scifi at its best, but I don't buy the survival of the airships or their society after 250 years. The essential scarcity of the post-apocalypse, that every item is unique and comes from a vanished past, is undercut as the characters treat their gear like there's always more. The parachutes and supply crates the hell divers rely upon seem endless.
The characters are decent enough, but a little stock. X is a wounded badass with a decent heart. Tin is an orphan with a talent for machines. The Captain has the crew's best interests at heart, but she's dying. There's an obligatory rebel who doesn't understand the gravity of the situation. A lot of potential for story-telling is undermined by the essential decency and unity of the characters. They're all good people arrayed against a cruel universe, even the rebel.
On final analysis, we read post-apocalyptic literature because it tells us something about survival, about who lives, what sacrifices are worse than death, and what grows in the ashes. Hell Divers is a roaring adventure, but doesn't have much to say to these questions.
The high-concept bit is cool enough. 250 years ago, civilization was destroyed in a nuclear war. The 1000 odd survivors of humanity live on two airships, creaking beasts which were once bombers and are now lifeboats. Vital parts and fuel are only available on the surface. To retrieve them, the airships dispatch Hell Divers, parachutists who dive through deadly electrical storms to brave the frozen radioactive wastes below, where they hunt for supplies and are hunted by horrific monsters. The life expectancy of a hell diver is 16 jumps. Our hero, X (short for Xavier) has over 90 jumps. When one of the two ships goes down in a place named Hades, only X can save humanity from extinction.
There are some real cool pieces to this novel. Smith occasionally turns a fantastic bit of phrase to describe the grandeur of a parachute dive, or the haggard condition of the airship and her crew. But the pacing in this novel is workmanlike, a sense of obligatory 'action scene', 'character scene', rather than the true unity that makes for a great pulp novel. The setting is high concept scifi at its best, but I don't buy the survival of the airships or their society after 250 years. The essential scarcity of the post-apocalypse, that every item is unique and comes from a vanished past, is undercut as the characters treat their gear like there's always more. The parachutes and supply crates the hell divers rely upon seem endless.
The characters are decent enough, but a little stock. X is a wounded badass with a decent heart. Tin is an orphan with a talent for machines. The Captain has the crew's best interests at heart, but she's dying. There's an obligatory rebel who doesn't understand the gravity of the situation. A lot of potential for story-telling is undermined by the essential decency and unity of the characters. They're all good people arrayed against a cruel universe, even the rebel.
On final analysis, we read post-apocalyptic literature because it tells us something about survival, about who lives, what sacrifices are worse than death, and what grows in the ashes. Hell Divers is a roaring adventure, but doesn't have much to say to these questions.